It was 2 weeks after Comrades Marathon and I still remembered the good memories during this year's down run. One thing that reinforced my thinking was the need to conserve energy from the start of the race. In many occasions, I heard other runners saying the need to run fast at the beginning to bank-in enough time so that you could use this time at the later stage of the race. While it may be possible for a standard 42.195km marathon, the same cannot be said of ultra races, especially one like Comrades Marathon. If you were to do that, and if you did not refuel properly, you may bonk out by the half way mark! Another lesson I learnt was that running in a pace group really helped IF your leader had the experience of running the race. This was very true for Comrades Marathon. Jafta was a great leader. He was inspiring and had great knowledge of the route, having completed 16 Comrades previously. He knew when to take walk breaks, when to run up and down hills, when to power walk, which water stations to skip (he didn't skip that many though), etc. He also encouraged other runners to join his buss as and when we ran passed them. His pace was consistent throughout. For the tough section of uphill running, he would motivate us by running 2 lamp posts before power walking, and another 3 lamp posts before another power walking session. He knew breaking up long uphills into manageable portion would do us better than running a longer uphill with a longer power walk. He was also smart enough to remind runners during downhill running, not to rush but instead to listen to our foot falls. This is the hallmark for a great pacer. I am not sure if I would be lucky enough to bump into him the next time I decide to do the Comrades Marathon but I'm very sure if you stick with him, Jafta will surely bring you to the finishing line within the 12hrs cut-off time. It is indeed a very "sub-comfortable" finish effort.
I felt that the up run seemed tougher than the down run but when you actually run it, the down run seemed to take more out of your body. This could be due to the downhill sections that comes near the end of the run - the Fields Hill is about 3km long and while I don't mind pounding down at the later stage of the race, I'm sure my knees did not enjoy one bit at all. Maybe that explained why at both the down runs in 2009 and 2010, when I knew I could make the 12hrs cut-off time about 4~5km from the finishing, I slowed to a shuffle as I felt nothing left in my tank. Even when I entered the stadium, I couldn't really speed up. (It shouldn't be due to the food I ate because I had more gels and food for my down run as compared to my up run. This year, I only took 1 GU gel plus some bites of oranges and bananas as compared to 3 gels in the previous 2 years). I guess I'll have to try both the down and up run again to see if which one I enjoy better. Hmmmm... The only motivation to do another Comrades Marathon would be to get into the Green Number Club, which means I have to successfully complete another 7 more! This is something I had to really think about it carefully. Well, according to the official website, next year's down run will he held on 3 Jun 2012, which means I have another 357 days to consider (though the race registration would start sometime in Oct 2011).
Logistically speaking, I enjoyed the up run more than the down run. This is due to the need to wake up early for the down run. As most runners opt to stay at Durban (for both up and down runs), it means that you have to wake up very early at 1am and make sure you reach the start around 4am. This is to give yourself ample time to check in your check bag and visit the toilet. For up run, you only had to worry about getting back to Durban, which could take a longer time to reach due to the traffic jam. Hence, it is important to pack some recovery food and drink in your check bag. Otherwise, you may end up having the only option of eating MacDonald as it would be 9pm when you reach Durban and most eateries closed early on a Sunday.
So by end of May 2011, I had successfully completed an ultramarathon race a month as scheduled. Next up will be Sundown Ultramarathon 100km in Jun 2011.
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